I lived here all through the ‘60’s… Home of Ft. Irwin, Yermo Marine Corps Supply Depot, Goldstone Tracking Station (NASA) and Calico Ghost Town. Barstow was the butt of many Johnny Carson jokes. Barstow is in the middle of the Mojave Desert. I remember when I was a kid that it seemed that Barstow was always competing with Needles as being the “Nation’s Hot Spot” (110-115 degrees). Barstow, at least when I lived there was not much more than a seven-mile main street… Yes it had neighborhoods, but as far as Barstow businesses go, there was the one main street.

One precious memory I have is when I was a kid living actually three miles outside of Barstow (just off Rt. 66) in a place called Lenwood, laying on the hood of the family ’63 Ford Country Squire nine-passenger station wagon listening to Vin Scully (LA Dodgers) and Dick Enburg (Angels) announce baseball games out of LA!

I joined the US Navy while I was a senior at Barstow Union High School in 1973. I haven’t been there since ’75 while on a short leave. I would like to go back there someday. I have met people who have been there who have told me that it has changed a lot (grown) My brother was there a couple of years ago and told me that our old neighborhood has not changed at all! He said some of the houses have worn down a bit, but there are few of the same neighbors living there!